Our first impression of Dr. Harvey Belik was that he was a jerk and that was before we met him face to face.
We called his office in the hopes of him giving us a prescription for antibiotics. He refused and told us we would have to be examined first. He refused again even after we explained that we were on vacation and had a very limited amount of time, not enough to blow a couple of hours in a waiting room. Like we said a jerk.
Then we met him.
His first words to us were ‘You look awful’.
Then he took our pulse. Told us we were skipping a beat and then said we had to go to hospital immediately or we would die.
‘Listen we told him, it can’t be that bad. Besides we had a bris of our first grandson to go to and after that the beret ceremony of our second son serving in the IDF.’
He didn’t listen. Well maybe he did, he just didn’t agree with us.
Instead he called our wife in and told her that if we didn’t get to hospital, we would die.
Only a jerk would play so underhanded.
So we went to the hospital, got a blood test and were told that our hemoglobin level was really, really low.
Big deal we thought. We didn’t know what hemoglobin did so it couldn’t be that bad.
We began to change our mind about the seriousness of our condition when nurses and interns not assigned to us began to wander by and ask the intern who was attending us if there was really a guy around who should be dead.
So we were admitted, got transfused with five units of the stuff and are still around all because some jerk Aussie Doctor did not suffer a fool.
Later on we learned that our doctor was the first on the scene after the Thailand tsunami. He was also first on the scene after the earthquake in Haiti and the first on the scene for the Japanese earthquake. Yes, Dr. Harvey Belik is a bona fide international hero and humanitarian.
And on top of everything else he saved our life but didn’t even say thank you for the cookies we bought him afterwards.
Like we said, a jerk.
And while saving life was for him just a another day at the office for us and our loved ones, it was a pretty big deal.
So we thank him from the bottom of our heart that isn’t skipping a beat anymore.
The world could use more jerks just like him. Then again there would be more fools like us.
click below for feature piece on Dr. Belik
http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/PersonalNotes/Article.aspx?id=169696
I know that we may not have seen eye to eye on a few things, and it does not help when family members do extremely stupid things. But I’m glad that Dr. Belik was a jerk and I wish all of us could have someone like that in our lives, and I am glad he landed in yours. Be well.
I happen to know that jerk. More of the world should be like him, then the world would be in better shape. Glad you are well. Power to the jerks.